Tone-deaf CEO casually brags about expensive family vacation in front of employees living paycheck-to-paycheck: '[He] drop[s] 15K…twice a year…on Disney cruises'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Mar 31, 2024 8:00 AM EDT

Imagine having the audacity to talk openly about the $15K you casually spend twice a year on luxury vacations for your kids while your employees are actively struggling financially. One has to wonder if that "hard-earned" money could have been used to keep your employees from having to live paycheck-to-paycheck.

This thread was posted to Reddit by u/Ranier_Wolfnight, who shared exactly how all this drama went down on a conference call. Evidently, at the beginning of said call, the CEO was attempting to break the ice when he talked about how he takes the whole family (including their nanny) on Disney cruises every year for each of his kids' birthdays. Meanwhile, later during the call, an employee in her fifties brought up the fact that a delayed error from her most recent paycheck resulted in her suffering from overdraft fees from her bank. Yikes! Not a great look for the CEO to have just gone on and on about those vacations as if it's some universal experience. 

Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions from folks in the comments section. For more tales of workplace drama and toxic management, check out this post about a guy who was passed over for a long-promised promotion.

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  • 01
    ZO Uby Moo ՐԱՏԵԼ "Others within the same firm are one setback away from HOOFBU living paycheck to paycheck"
    via Gabriel Benois
  • 02
    r/antiwork Posted by u/Ranier_Wolfnight 3 hours ago Client VP casually talking on a call about how he enjoys taking his kids on separate cruises. Coworker mentions her account just overdrafted.
    via u/Ranier_Wolfnight
  • 03
    Had to hop on a conference call for client briefings and introductions a while back. One of their vice presidents decides to kick things off with introductions and details how he loves traveling with family and how his 2 kids really seem to enjoy going on annual Disney cruises for their respective separate birthdays (the kids nanny also comes). Meanwhile, on a side chat of the call, one of the employees in her 50s mentioned that payroll recently screwed up her direct deposit which caused her ban
    via u/Ranier_Wolfnight
  • 04
    So to review, there are those out there that can drop 15K... TWICE A YEAR...on Disney cruises for separate kids birthday occasions. Not including other family vacations and/or events. While others within the same firm are one setback away from living paycheck to paycheck? That was just...some really grim bummer to hear, man. What a kick to the j
    via u/Ranier_Wolfnight
  • 05
    Illuminator007 · 3 hr. ago The two Disnery Cruises a year with the nanny person just occupies a completely different reality than the overdrawn bank account person.
    via u/Ranier_Wolfnight
  • 06
    Psychedelic Magic1840 - 2 hr. ago Being in that position know, I've been there. Sitting in meetings with upper management and us, the techies keeping all the facilities running, utilising I skills that took many years of university, and on the job training to learn. Hearing them joking about their holidays and cars, and coming in with coffees and biscuits from the office area only accessible to them, whilst we are not allowed to eat and drink in the meeting rooms. We all lived hand to mouth, wor
    via u/Ranier_Wolfnight
  • 07
    EtherPhreak 2 hr. ago Removing the paycheck aspect which I will cover in a minute, having a boss who likes to brag about all of the cool stuff they are buying, "volunteer" work they are helping with, or vacations they are taking is an instant productivity killer. I have switched positions, and left jobs over this kind of which is not always easy, but can be done.
    via u/Ranier_Wolfnight
  • 08
    My current employer messed up payroll when they switched to a new company, and I guess they had an issue in the transition. The paycheck landed a day late. There was an apology, a notice they were sending a $300 inconvenience check to EVERYONE, and should there be any additional financial burden on any employee, to please send the details to them so they could reimburse that individual to ensure there were no out of pocket issues to that employee.
    via u/Ranier_Wolfnight
  • 09
    AfterVisitSummary 2 hr. ago I happen to be a VP, and this kind of is absolutely normalized in these "circles". It's infuriating and maddening. I have colleagues in our industry who talk about similar things, brag about how they refuse to fly if they're bumped out of first class, their homes in Paris, etc. while on calls with folks just struggling to make ends meet.
    via u/Ranier_Wolfnight
  • 10
    It makes me incredibly sad that people have this notion that they're so much "better" than others that they need to bring this stuff up fairly regularly, and it does seem to me in the years I've experienced it that it's really just that a mechanism for superiority.
    via u/Ranier_Wolfnight
  • 11
    The obvious correlation is that nearly every time I've experienced someone like this, they're actually terrible at their jobs, have no sense of business strategy (because who with a lick of strategic sense would belittle other humans like that), but continue to get their lifestyle and live that life until their employer realizes it, then they hop to another job.
    via u/Ranier_Wolfnight
  • 12
    If there's any consolation, any decent person knows they're trash. They're not going to experience real consequences, but my assumption is that they lead sad lives outside of the 9-5. (or 10-2 or whatever they work) Apologies for the rant, just ran into this a few times already today and then saw this post.
    via u/Ranier_Wolfnight
  • 13
    I_FAP_TO_TURKEYS . 1 hr. ago If you think having a house in Paris that no one lives in is a point of pride, you're just an unappreciative little is contributing to the ongoing global housing that crisis... And bad with money.
    via u/Ranier_Wolfnight
  • 14
    Like, I like to travel, but given they probably occupy the house 2 months out of the year, even if renting would be $10,000/month, it would take 10+ years to pay off the property. Oh, and there's a 0% chance of squatters being able to take it.
    via u/Ranier_Wolfnight
  • 15
    RummazKnowsBest 2 hr. ago Urgh. We regularly have calls with the really high ups and they're always describing the fancy holiday they're going on or just returned from. Cheers, mate. Good to know.
    via u/Ranier_Wolfnight
  • 16
    You_Paid_For_This . 2 hr. ago I can guarantee that the VP does much less work than his employee, both in terms of how many hours he actually spends working at work and also the effort required during those hours. Also he definitely has absolutely no loyalty to the company and would just ship if he was offered a single extra dollar.
    via u/Ranier_Wolfnight
  • 17
    Rumple- -Skin - 2 hr. ago Wish I could afford to take my nanny on holiday with us!
    via u/Ranier_Wolfnight
  • 18
    newforestroadwarrior 2 hr. ago I worked for a European customer who would quite happily ask for deadlines to be brought forwards so they had "something to read" during the August shutdown they had every year. Most European companies think we don't ever take weekends off, never mind holidays.
    via u/Ranier_Wolfnight
  • 19
    . tgoz13 1 hr. ago I have a family member that works for a business owned in the family. He regularly has issues where the owner "missed payroll" and gets OD charges. This should absolutely be covered in any scenario. It isn't My fault YOU screwded up
    via u/Ranier_Wolfnight
  • 20
    akahawkeye 24 min. ago My CEO fights our attempts to raise the pay rate for some of our hourly workers while we sit in meetings she drove to in her Maserati. It's wild.
    via u/Ranier_Wolfnight

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